Chris Darimont and Team. Science Inspired by Nature, People, and Place

Heather Bryan

Wildlife have remarkable capacity for responding to environmental change; however many species are facing an increasing number of complex stressors that may compromise their ability to cope. My research aims to elucidate the responses of wildlife to environmental change by examining patterns in wildlife health across the landscape. Specifically, I use measures of individual health (e.g., parasites, hormones, growth) to examine the effects of potential stressors, such as food shortages and competition, on wildlife populations. This approach provides understanding of how and why wildlife respond to environmental change, which in turn can inform policy and conservation interventions aimed at promoting wildlife health.

As one example, my dissertation research revealed that grizzly bears may experience both nutritional and social stress as a result of salmon declines. This finding suggests that conservation efforts should focus not only on food security in this case fisheries management strategies aimed at protecting salmon runs for bears but also on regulating human activities on salmon streams that might alter bear social interactions when feeding on salmon. By applying a similar approach to wolves from northern Canada, colleagues and I found that heavily hunted wolves had higher stress and reproductive hormones compared with lightly hunted wolves. Although the long-term effects of chronically elevated stress and reproductive hormones are unknown, there are potential implications for wildlife health, welfare, long-term survival, and behaviour. Therefore, our findings emphasize that conservation and management plans should consider the possible social and physiological effects of intensely applied control programs on wildlife.

In my current work, I am collaborating with partners from academia and the provincial government to investigate the environmental conditions that influence grizzly bear size and growth across the province of British Columbia. This work may reveal new insight into the responses of bears to changing habitat over time, which in turn might inform land use planning. As part of the Central Coast Bear Working Group’s long-term bear research program, I am working with Indigenous and academic partners to apply new methods of monitoring bear population health using environmental DNA. Results will provide guidance on the most cost-effective strategy for monitoring bears during salmon runs.

Funding:

I am grateful to MITACS and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation for funding my current postdoctoral position and to the Hakai Institute for funding my previous postdoctoral position.

Dissertation: Parasites and hormones as non-invasive bioindicators of ecophysiology in large carnivores (Supervisor: Dr. Judit Smits), Awarded Governor General Gold Medal for highest-ranked PhD thesis at the University of Calgary

B.Sc. Hons. Biology and Major Environmental Studies (with Distinction), University of Victoria (2004)